Operating system notification of actions to be taken responsive to adapter events

ABSTRACT

Notification of hardware actions to be taken responsive to hardware events is facilitated. An operating system coupled, but external to, the hardware notifies firmware of the hardware action to be taken.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates, in general, to facilitating communication within a computing environment, and in particular, to facilitating notification of actions to be taken, in response to adapter events.

There are computing environments in which certain events occurring in hardware are not visible to the processor firmware. For instance, there are situations in which adapter errors are not reported to the processor firmware, but instead, are reported to the operating system. The operating system, however, is not responsible for handling such errors. Therefore, these events that are undetected by the firmware are unaddressed.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a capability is provided for notifying the firmware of actions to be taken to address such events.

The shortcomings of the prior art are overcome and advantages are provided through the provision of a computer program product for facilitating communication of actions to be taken. The computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method. The method includes, for instance, responsive to executing a Service Call Logical Processor (SCLP) instruction specifying a control block, the control block including an event type, a function handle of an adapter, an adapter type and an action qualifier, performing an action based on the action qualifier, the action including one of resetting the adapter or requesting a repair action; responsive to completing the SCLP, notifying an operating system; and responsive to executing a Store Event Information command issued by the operating system responsive to notification, obtaining information regarding the action.

Further, a computer program product for facilitating communication of events is provided. The computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method. The method includes, for instance, responsive to an event that has occurred relating to an adapter, notifying an operating system; and responsive to executing a Store Event Information command issued by the operating system responsive to notification, obtaining information associated with the event, the information comprising a function handle identifying the adapter and an event code providing state regarding the adapter.

Methods and systems relating to one or more aspects of the present invention are also described and claimed herein. Further, services relating to one or more aspects of the present invention are also described and may be claimed herein.

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more aspects of the present invention are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed as examples in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 depicts one embodiment of a computing environment to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2A depicts one embodiment of the logic to perform error detection and action notification, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 2B depicts one embodiment of the logic to notify an operating system that action has been taken, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 3 depicts one embodiment of a control block used in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 4 depicts one embodiment of a computer program product incorporating one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 5 depicts one embodiment of a host computer system to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 6 depicts a further example of a computer system to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 7 depicts another example of a computer system comprising a computer network to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 8 depicts one embodiment of various elements of a computer system to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 9A depicts one embodiment of the execution unit of the computer system of FIG. 8 to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 9B depicts one embodiment of the branch unit of the computer system of FIG. 8 to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 9C depicts one embodiment of the load/store unit of the computer system of FIG. 8 to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention; and

FIG. 10 depicts one embodiment of an emulated host computer system to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a capability is provided to facilitate notification to processor firmware of actions to be taken responsive to adapter events. The notification is performed by an operating system executing within a processing unit. As an example, a capability is provided for an operating system to notify the firmware of the processing unit of adapter errors detected by the operating system and/or actions to be taken, responsive to the errors. As used herein, firmware is, e.g., the microcode, millicode and/or macrocode of the processor. It includes, for instance, the hardware-level instructions and/or data structures used in implementation of higher level machine code. In one embodiment, it includes, for instance, proprietary code that is typically delivered as microcode that includes trusted software or microcode specific to the underlying hardware and controls operating system access to the system hardware.

In one particular embodiment, the operating system is executing within a logically partitioned environment. In such an environment, when an adapter function is used by the partition, the function is logically owned by the partition. For instance, that partition's operating system has access to the adapter and that function is allowed access to that partition's memory. Since the function is logically owned by the partition, some errors are not visible to the firmware, since they are reported directly to the device driver running in the partition operating system, bypassing the firmware. This means that the partition operating system device driver, and not the firmware, may be aware of some errors which require hardware repair or service. This has been problematic since a partition operating system has not owned the responsibility of performing hardware maintenance or repair for the overall system; there is no existing methodology to request repair actions for hardware from an operating system; the operating system implements device-specific handling even for those errors which are common across adapter types; and recovery actions of device drivers are inconsistent and actions range from virtually no recovery to complex schemes.

Thus, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a capability is provided that allows the operating system to notify the firmware of adapter errors and/or of actions to be taken. In one aspect of the present invention, a common infrastructure for requesting maintenance or repair actions for external adapters when the problem is detected by a partition operating system, and not the firmware, is provided. Firmware initiates a coherent system-wide methodology to recover, instead of leaving the recovery up to the operating systems.

As used herein, the term adapter includes any type of adapter (e.g., storage adapter, network adapter, processing adapter, PCI adapter, cryptographic adapter, other type of input/output adapters, etc.). In one embodiment, an adapter includes one adapter function. However, in other embodiments, an adapter may include a plurality of adapter functions. One or more aspects of the present invention are applicable whether an adapter includes one adapter function or a plurality of adapter functions. Moreover, in the examples presented herein, adapter is used interchangeably with adapter function (e.g., PCI function) unless otherwise noted.

One embodiment of a computing environment to incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention is described with reference to FIG. 1. In one example, a computing environment 100 is a System z® server offered by International Business Machines Corporation. System z® is based on the z/Architecture® offered by International Business Machines Corporation. Details regarding the z/Architecture® are described in an IBM® publication entitled, “z/Architecture Principles of Operation,” IBM Publication No. SA22-7832-07, February 2009, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. IBM®, System z® and z/Architecture® are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. Other names used herein may be registered trademarks, trademarks or product names of International Business Machines Corporation or other companies.

In one example, computing environment 100 includes a central processing complex 102 coupled to a system memory 104 (a.k.a., main memory) via a memory controller 106. Memory controller 106 receives read or write requests from the central processing complex and accesses the system memory for the central processing complex. Memory controller 106 is, for instance, comprised of hardware and is used to arbitrate for access to the system memory and to maintain the memory's consistency. This arbitration is performed for a request received from the central processing complex, as well as for a request received from one or more adapters 110. Like the central processing units, the adapters issue requests to system memory 104 to gain access to the system memory.

Adapter 110 is, for example, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) or PCI Express (PCIe) adapter that includes one or more PCI functions. A PCI function issues a request that requires access to system memory. The request is routed to an input/output hub 112 (e.g., a PCI hub) via one or more switches (e.g., PCIe switches) 114. In one example, the input/output hub is comprised of hardware, including one or more state machines. The input/output hub is coupled to memory controller 106 via an I/O-to-memory bus 118.

Central processing complex 102 is also coupled to a service processor 120, which facilitates handling of service requests and notifications, as described in further detail below. The service processor is, for instance, a server, such as a PowerPC® or System z® server offered by International Business Machines Corporation. Other servers or other processors or systems are also usable. PowerPC® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

Central processing complex 102 includes, for instance, one or more partitions or zones 130 (e.g., logical partitions LP1-LPn), one or more central processors 132 (e.g., CP1-CPm), and a hypervisor 134 (e.g., a logical partition manager), each of which is described below.

Each logical partition 130 is capable of functioning as a separate system. That is, each logical partition can be independently reset, initially loaded with an operating system or a hypervisor (such as Z/VM® offered by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.), if desired, and operate with different programs. An operating system, a hypervisor, or application program running in a logical partition appears to have access to a full and complete system, but only a portion of it is available. A combination of hardware and Licensed Internal Code (also referred to as microcode or millicode) keeps a program in a logical partition from interfering with the program in a different logical partition. This allows several different logical partitions to operate on a single or multiple physical processor in a time slice manner. In this particular example, each logical partition has a resident operating system 136, which may differ for one or more logical partitions. In one embodiment, operating system 136 is a Z/OS® or zLinux operating system, offered by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. Z/OS® and Z/VM® are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

Central processors 132 are physical processor resources that are allocated to the logical partitions. For instance, a logical partition 130 includes one or more logical processors, each of which represents all or a share of the physical processor resource 132 allocated to the partition. The underlying processor resource may either be dedicated to that partition or shared with another partition.

Logical partitions 130 are managed by hypervisor 134 implemented by firmware running on processors 132. Logical partitions 130 and hypervisor 134 each comprise one or more programs residing in respective portions of central storage associated with the central processors. One example of hypervisor 134 is the processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM), offered by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

Although, in this example, a central processing complex having logical partitions is described, one or more aspects of the present invention may be incorporated in and used by other processing units, including single or multi-processor processing units that are not partitioned, among others. The central processing complex described herein is only one example.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, an operating system executing within a logical partition of the central processing complex detects an adapter event and invokes an action for the adapter, which is external, but coupled to, the central processing complex. For example, the operating system detects an adapter error and requests one or more actions to be taken for the adapter. This error was undetected by the firmware, in one example. This processing is described in further detail with reference to FIG. 2, in which a common infrastructure is provided for requesting maintenance or repair actions for external adapters when a problem is detected by an operating system (e.g., partition operating system) and not by the firmware.

Referring to FIG. 2A, logic is performed to detect an adapter error (or other adapter event), notify the firmware, and take action. In this example, this logic is performed by multiple entities. For instance, the logic designated by 200 is performed by the operating system executing on a processing unit, and particularly, by the operating system device driver associated with the adapter for which the event has occurred; the logic indicated at 202 is performed by the firmware of the central processing complex (or other processing unit); and the logic designated by 204 is performed by a service processor coupled to the central processing complex.

Initially, the operating system detects the error, STEP 210. For instance, a device driver associated with the adapter causing the error and executing as part of the operating system detects the error via an event or status update. A determination is then made as to whether the error is a hardware error or a software error to be handled by the operating system, INQUIRY 212. The device driver can determine this by the type of error indicated in the event or status update. For instance, the device driver has error classifications, and using those classifications and the event or status update can determine the type of error. If the error is not a hardware error, then the error is processed by the operating system, STEP 214. The handling of the error is specific to the operating system and error type. Processing is complete, STEP 216.

Returning to INQUIRY 212, if the error is a hardware error, then a control block is set up that includes various information regarding the adapter and the action to be taken, STEP 218. In this example, a Service Call Control Block (SCCB) is created, an example of which is described with reference to FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 3, in one embodiment, a Service Call Control Block 300 includes:

-   -   a) An event type 302, which designates the type of event being         requested, and is set equal to “an adapter service request”, in         this example;     -   b) A function handle 304 that identifies an instance of the         adapter (e.g., adapter function). In one example, the handle         includes an enable indicator indicating whether the handle is         enabled, a function number that identifies an adapter function         (this is a static identifier and may be used to index into a         function table to locate an entry that includes operational         parameters for the adapter function); and an instance number         specifying a particular instance of this handle;     -   c) A physical function identifier 306, which is a static         identifier of the adapter (e.g., adapter function) and may         identify the physical location of the adapter;     -   d) An adapter type 308 that describes the type of adapter (e.g.,         PCI adapter);     -   e) An action qualifier 310 that describes one or more specific         actions to be taken (e.g., reset, then deconfigure; reset;         deconfigure; request repair; etc.). In this example, the action         qualifiers are device-independent, but in other examples, can be         device-dependent. That is, in this example, the action qualifier         does not depend on the type of adapter (i.e., it is         device-independent);     -   f) A response code 312 that includes results of an operation;         and     -   g) Optional data 314, which is dependent on the action qualifier         and may be adapter-specific.

More, less or different information may be included in the SCCB, in other embodiments.

Returning to FIG. 2A, subsequent to creating the SCCB, the SCCB is provided to the firmware. In one example, it is provided via a Service Call Logical Processor (SCLP) instruction, STEP 220. The Service Call Logical Processor instruction, which is issued by the operating system and executed by the firmware, includes a command (e.g., configure adapter, deconfigure adapter and an indication of a location of the SCCB. The command and SCCB provide an indication of the action to be taken.

Responsive to receiving the SCLP instruction, the firmware analyzes the information in the SCCB, STEP 222. Based on the information in the SCCB, the firmware determines whether an adapter service is being requested, INQUIRY 224. This determination is made by checking the event type in the Service Call Control Block provided by the Service Call Logic Processor instruction. If the requested service is not an adapter service, then processing is complete, STEP 226. Otherwise, the action requested is analyzed by the firmware, STEP 228. For example, the firmware analyzes the action qualifier(s) (e.g., reset, request repair) to determine the one or more actions to be taken. The action qualifiers are a sub-command of the SCLP deconfigure command.

Further, the firmware initiates creation of a log describing the event and requested action, STEP 230. For example, the firmware sends a request to the service processor to create an entry in the system log. Included in the request is the SCCB and a Service Reference Code (SRC). In one embodiment, there is a unique SRC associated with each adapter type/action qualifier combination. Additionally, the firmware may request creation of other logs.

Moreover, the firmware may perform one or more actions specified by the action qualifiers, STEP 232. For instance, it may perform or instruct the adapter to perform a reset, a deconfigure, etc.

The service processor receives the service request and analyzes the request to determine that a log entry is to be created, STEP 240. Responsive to the analysis, it creates an entry in the system log that describes the requested action, STEP 242. In one example, the log includes the SCCB. Additional logs may also be generated depending on the action qualifier, specific adapter, and request of the firmware.

Further, the service processor determines whether a “call home” is needed, INQUIRY 244. In this example, “call home” refers to providing an error report to a particular entity, such as IBM®, and requesting a repair or maintenance action be taken. That is, even though the firmware may have taken an action, such as reset, deconfigure, etc., a repair action is requested indicating that the adapter needs servicing (e.g., a physical repair). The determination of whether “call home” is needed depends on the value of the SRC received in the service request. If “call home” is not needed, then processing is complete, STEP 246. Otherwise, if a “call home” is needed, then “call home” is issued, STEP 248.

Asynchronously, the firmware completes the operation with an external interrupt and reports the results to the SCCB (e.g., in the response code of the SCCB).

Responsive to the firmware performing an action based on the action qualifier, such as resetting the adapter or requesting a repair action, the operating system is notified that the action has been performed by a normal SCLP completion, an external interrupt and a response code in the SCCB.

Other unsolicited events also apply. This is further described with reference to FIG. 2B. The operating system is notified, STEP 250. For example, the operating system is provided a channel report word (CRW) from the firmware that indicates that an action has been performed.

Responsive to receiving the channel report word, the operating system issues a Store Event Information command to obtain information regarding the event. In particular, in one example, the Store Event Information command is executed by the firmware and returns a response block that includes, for instance, the function handle specifying the adapter that is associated with this event; a function identifier that identifies the adapter; and an event code that describes the reason for the adapter availability event notification. Example event codes include:

-   -   A PCI function (or adapter) has been moved to the configured         state. A general PCI function handle is stored.     -   A PCI function has moved from the reserved state to the standby         state. A general PCI function handle is stored, but is not         usable by the configuration until the PCI identified by the PCI         function identifier is successfully configured.     -   De-configuring of a PCI function is requested. If the PCI         function is enabled, an enabled PCI function is stored. If the         PCI function is disabled, a general PCI function handle is         stored.     -   A PCI function has moved from the configured state to the         standby or reserved state using a manual control. A general PCI         function handle is stored, but is not usable by the         configuration.     -   The amount of storage available to be mapped for I/O address         translation has changed.     -   One or more PCI functions may be in the standby state. Neither a         PCI function handle nor a PCI function ID is stored.

These event codes provide an indication to the operating system of the state of the adapter identified by the handle.

Described in detail herein is a capability that allows operating systems or other components external to the adapters to initiate actions on behalf of the adapters. These actions include, for instance, system-level maintenance and repair requests. The software (e.g., operating system) can take advantage of consistent processing of the errors by firmware independent of device drivers. The operating system, independent of which operating system it is, can issue a request (which is the same for various operating systems) to have an action taken by firmware, and firmware handles the device-specific nature of the action to be taken. A single methodology is used by multiple types of operating systems and across one or more types of adapters (e.g., network, storage, crypto and/or processing adapters, as examples).

In the embodiments described herein, the adapters are PCI adapters. PCI, as used herein, refers to any adapters implemented according to a PCI-based specification as defined by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), including but not limited to, PCI or PCIe. In one particular example, the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is a component level interconnect standard that defines a bi-directional communication protocol for transactions between I/O adapters and host systems. PCIe communications are encapsulated in packets according to the PCIe standard for transmission on a PCIe bus. Transactions originating at I/O adapters and ending at host systems are referred to as upbound transactions. Transactions originating at host systems and terminating at I/O adapters are referred to as downbound transactions. The PCIe topology is based on point-to-point unidirectional links that are paired (e.g., one upbound link, one downbound link) to form the PCIe bus. The PCIe standard is maintained and published by the PCI-SIG.

Other applications filed on the same day include: U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Translation Of Input/Output Addresses To Memory Addresses,” Craddock et al., (POU920090029US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Runtime Determination Of Translation Formats For Adapter Functions,” Craddock et al., (POU920100007US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Resizing Address Spaces Concurrent To Accessing The Address Spaces,” Craddock et al., (POU920100009US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Multiple Address Spaces Per Adapter,” Craddock et al., (POU920100010US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Converting A Message Signaled Interruption Into An I/O Adapter Event Notification,” Craddock et al., (POU920100014US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Converting A Message Signaled Interruption Into An I/O Adapter Event Notification To A Guest Operating System,” Brice et al., (POU920100015US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Identification Of Types Of Sources Of Adapter Interruptions,” Craddock et al., (POU920100016US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Controlling A Rate At Which Adapter Interruption Requests Are Processed,” Belmar et al., (POU920100017US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Controlling The Selectively Setting Of Operational Parameters For An Adapter,” Craddock et al., (POU920100018US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Load Instruction for Communicating with Adapters,” Craddock et al., (POU920100019US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Controlling Access By A Configuration To An Adapter Function,” Craddock et al., (POU920100020US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Discovery By Operating System Of Information Relating To Adapter Functions Accessible To The Operating System,” Coneski et al., (POU920100021US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Enable/Disable Adapters Of A Computing Environment,” Coneski et al., (POU920100022US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Guest Access To Address Spaces Of Adapter,” Craddock et al., (POU920100023US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Managing Processing Associated With Hardware Events,” Coneski et al., (POU920100025US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Measurement Facility For Adapter Functions,” Brice et al., (POU920100027US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Store/Store Block Instructions for Communicating with Adapters,” Craddock et al., (POU920100162US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Associating Input/Output Device Requests With Memory Associated With A Logical Partition,” Craddock et al., (POU920100045US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Scalable I/O Adapter Function Level Error Detection, Isolation, And Reporting,” Craddock et al., (POU920100044US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Switch Failover Control In A Multiprocessor Computer System,” Bayer et al., (POU920100042US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “A System And Method For Downbound I/O Expansion Request And Response Processing In A PCIe Architecture,” Gregg et al., (POU920100040US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Upbound Input/Output Expansion Request And Response Processing In A PCIe Architecture,” Gregg et al., (POU920100039US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “A System And Method For Routing I/O Expansion Requests And Responses In A PCIe Architecture,” Lais et al. (POU920100038US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Input/Output (I/O) Expansion Response Processing In A Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Environment,” Gregg et al., (POU920100037US1); U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Memory Error Isolation And Recovery In A Multiprocessor Computer System,” Check et al., (POU920100041US1); and U.S. Ser. No. ______, entitled “Connected Input/Output Hub Management,” Bayer et al., (POU920100036US1), each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system”. Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Referring now to FIG. 4, in one example, a computer program product 400 includes, for instance, one or more computer readable storage media 402 to store computer readable program code means or logic 404 thereon to provide and facilitate one or more aspects of the present invention.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using an appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language, such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language, assembler or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

In addition to the above, one or more aspects of the present invention may be provided, offered, deployed, managed, serviced, etc. by a service provider who offers management of customer environments. For instance, the service provider can create, maintain, support, etc. computer code and/or a computer infrastructure that performs one or more aspects of the present invention for one or more customers. In return, the service provider may receive payment from the customer under a subscription and/or fee agreement, as examples. Additionally or alternatively, the service provider may receive payment from the sale of advertising content to one or more third parties.

In one aspect of the present invention, an application may be deployed for performing one or more aspects of the present invention. As one example, the deploying of an application comprises providing computer infrastructure operable to perform one or more aspects of the present invention.

As a further aspect of the present invention, a computing infrastructure may be deployed comprising integrating computer readable code into a computing system, in which the code in combination with the computing system is capable of performing one or more aspects of the present invention.

As yet a further aspect of the present invention, a process for integrating computing infrastructure comprising integrating computer readable code into a computer system may be provided. The computer system comprises a computer readable medium, in which the computer medium comprises one or more aspects of the present invention. The code in combination with the computer system is capable of performing one or more aspects of the present invention.

Although various embodiments are described above, these are only examples. For example, computing environments of other architectures can incorporate and use one or more aspects of the present invention. As examples, servers other than System z® servers, such as Power Systems servers or other servers offered by International Business Machines Corporation, or servers of other companies can include, use and/or benefit from one or more aspects of the present invention. Further, although in the example herein, the adapters and I/O hub (e.g., PCI hub) are considered a part of the server, in other embodiments, they do not have to necessarily be considered a part of the server, but can simply be considered as being coupled to system memory and/or other components of a computing environment. The computing environment need not be a server. Further, although the adapters are PCI based, one or more aspects of the present invention are usable with other adapters or other I/O components. Adapter and PCI adapter are just examples. Further, the SCCB may include more, less or different information. In some embodiments, it includes data, which depends on the action qualifier. Many other variations are possible.

Further, other types of computing environments can benefit from one or more aspects of the present invention. As an example, a data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code is usable that includes at least two processors coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements include, for instance, local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memory which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.

Input/Output or I/O devices (including, but not limited to, keyboards, displays, pointing devices, DASD, tape, CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and other memory media, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modems, and Ethernet cards are just a few of the available types of network adapters.

Referring to FIG. 5, representative components of a Host Computer system 5000 to implement one or more aspects of the present invention are portrayed. The representative host computer 5000 comprises one or more CPUs 5001 in communication with computer memory (i.e., central storage) 5002, as well as I/O interfaces to storage media devices 5011 and networks 5010 for communicating with other computers or SANs and the like. The CPU 5001 is compliant with an architecture having an architected instruction set and architected functionality. The CPU 5001 may have dynamic address translation (DAT) 5003 for transforming program addresses (virtual addresses) into real addresses of memory. A DAT typically includes a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) 5007 for caching translations so that later accesses to the block of computer memory 5002 do not require the delay of address translation. Typically, a cache 5009 is employed between computer memory 5002 and the processor 5001. The cache 5009 may be hierarchical having a large cache available to more than one CPU and smaller, faster (lower level) caches between the large cache and each CPU. In some implementations, the lower level caches are split to provide separate low level caches for instruction fetching and data accesses. In one embodiment, an instruction is fetched from memory 5002 by an instruction fetch unit 5004 via a cache 5009. The instruction is decoded in an instruction decode unit 5006 and dispatched (with other instructions in some embodiments) to instruction execution unit or units 5008. Typically several execution units 5008 are employed, for example an arithmetic execution unit, a floating point execution unit and a branch instruction execution unit. The instruction is executed by the execution unit, accessing operands from instruction specified registers or memory as needed. If an operand is to be accessed (loaded or stored) from memory 5002, a load/store unit 5005 typically handles the access under control of the instruction being executed. Instructions may be executed in hardware circuits or in internal microcode (firmware) or by a combination of both.

As noted, a computer system includes information in local (or main) storage, as well as addressing, protection, and reference and change recording. Some aspects of addressing include the format of addresses, the concept of address spaces, the various types of addresses, and the manner in which one type of address is translated to another type of address. Some of main storage includes permanently assigned storage locations. Main storage provides the system with directly addressable fast-access storage of data. Both data and programs are to be loaded into main storage (from input devices) before they can be processed.

Main storage may include one or more smaller, faster-access buffer storages, sometimes called caches. A cache is typically physically associated with a CPU or an I/O processor. The effects, except on performance, of the physical construction and use of distinct storage media are generally not observable by the program.

Separate caches may be maintained for instructions and for data operands. Information within a cache is maintained in contiguous bytes on an integral boundary called a cache block or cache line (or line, for short). A model may provide an EXTRACT CACHE ATTRIBUTE instruction which returns the size of a cache line in bytes. A model may also provide PREFETCH DATA and PREFETCH DATA RELATIVE LONG instructions which effects the prefetching of storage into the data or instruction cache or the releasing of data from the cache.

Storage is viewed as a long horizontal string of bits. For most operations, accesses to storage proceed in a left-to-right sequence. The string of bits is subdivided into units of eight bits. An eight-bit unit is called a byte, which is the basic building block of all information formats. Each byte location in storage is identified by a unique nonnegative integer, which is the address of that byte location or, simply, the byte address. Adjacent byte locations have consecutive addresses, starting with 0 on the left and proceeding in a left-to-right sequence. Addresses are unsigned binary integers and are 24, 31, or 64 bits.

Information is transmitted between storage and a CPU or a channel subsystem one byte, or a group of bytes, at a time. Unless otherwise specified, in, for instance, the z/Architecture®, a group of bytes in storage is addressed by the leftmost byte of the group. The number of bytes in the group is either implied or explicitly specified by the operation to be performed. When used in a CPU operation, a group of bytes is called a field. Within each group of bytes, in, for instance, the z/Architecture®, bits are numbered in a left-to-right sequence. In the z/Architecture®, the leftmost bits are sometimes referred to as the “high-order” bits and the rightmost bits as the “low-order” bits. Bit numbers are not storage addresses, however. Only bytes can be addressed. To operate on individual bits of a byte in storage, the entire byte is accessed. The bits in a byte are numbered 0 through 7, from left to right (in, e.g., the z/Architecture). The bits in an address may be numbered 8-31 or 40-63 for 24-bit addresses, or 1-31 or 33-63 for 31-bit addresses; they are numbered 0-63 for 64-bit addresses. Within any other fixed-length format of multiple bytes, the bits making up the format are consecutively numbered starting from 0. For purposes of error detection, and in preferably for correction, one or more check bits may be transmitted with each byte or with a group of bytes. Such check bits are generated automatically by the machine and cannot be directly controlled by the program. Storage capacities are expressed in number of bytes. When the length of a storage-operand field is implied by the operation code of an instruction, the field is said to have a fixed length, which can be one, two, four, eight, or sixteen bytes. Larger fields may be implied for some instructions. When the length of a storage-operand field is not implied but is stated explicitly, the field is said to have a variable length. Variable-length operands can vary in length by increments of one byte (or with some instructions, in multiples of two bytes or other multiples). When information is placed in storage, the contents of only those byte locations are replaced that are included in the designated field, even though the width of the physical path to storage may be greater than the length of the field being stored.

Certain units of information are to be on an integral boundary in storage. A boundary is called integral for a unit of information when its storage address is a multiple of the length of the unit in bytes. Special names are given to fields of 2, 4, 8, and 16 bytes on an integral boundary. A halfword is a group of two consecutive bytes on a two-byte boundary and is the basic building block of instructions. A word is a group of four consecutive bytes on a four-byte boundary. A doubleword is a group of eight consecutive bytes on an eight-byte boundary. A quadword is a group of 16 consecutive bytes on a 16-byte boundary. When storage addresses designate halfwords, words, doublewords, and quadwords, the binary representation of the address contains one, two, three, or four rightmost zero bits, respectively. Instructions are to be on two-byte integral boundaries. The storage operands of most instructions do not have boundary-alignment requirements.

On devices that implement separate caches for instructions and data operands, a significant delay may be experienced if the program stores into a cache line from which instructions are subsequently fetched, regardless of whether the store alters the instructions that are subsequently fetched.

In one embodiment, the invention may be practiced by software (sometimes referred to licensed internal code, firmware, micro-code, milli-code, pico-code and the like, any of which would be consistent with the present invention). Referring to FIG. 5, software program code which embodies the present invention is typically accessed by processor 5001 of the host system 5000 from long-term storage media devices 5011, such as a CD-ROM drive, tape drive or hard drive. The software program code may be embodied on any of a variety of known media for use with a data processing system, such as a diskette, hard drive, or CD-ROM. The code may be distributed on such media, or may be distributed to users from computer memory 5002 or storage of one computer system over a network 5010 to other computer systems for use by users of such other systems.

The software program code includes an operating system which controls the function and interaction of the various computer components and one or more application programs. Program code is normally paged from storage media device 5011 to the relatively higher-speed computer storage 5002 where it is available for processing by processor 5001. The techniques and methods for embodying software program code in memory, on physical media, and/or distributing software code via networks are well known and will not be further discussed herein. Program code, when created and stored on a tangible medium (including but not limited to electronic memory modules (RAM), flash memory, Compact Discs (CDs), DVDs, Magnetic Tape and the like is often referred to as a “computer program product”. The computer program product medium is typically readable by a processing circuit preferably in a computer system for execution by the processing circuit.

FIG. 6 illustrates a representative workstation or server hardware system in which the present invention may be practiced. The system 5020 of FIG. 6 comprises a representative base computer system 5021, such as a personal computer, a workstation or a server, including optional peripheral devices. The base computer system 5021 includes one or more processors 5026 and a bus employed to connect and enable communication between the processor(s) 5026 and the other components of the system 5021 in accordance with known techniques. The bus connects the processor 5026 to memory 5025 and long-term storage 5027 which can include a hard drive (including any of magnetic media, CD, DVD and Flash Memory for example) or a tape drive for example. The system 5021 might also include a user interface adapter, which connects the microprocessor 5026 via the bus to one or more interface devices, such as a keyboard 5024, a mouse 5023, a printer/scanner 5030 and/or other interface devices, which can be any user interface device, such as a touch sensitive screen, digitized entry pad, etc. The bus also connects a display device 5022, such as an LCD screen or monitor, to the microprocessor 5026 via a display adapter.

The system 5021 may communicate with other computers or networks of computers by way of a network adapter capable of communicating 5028 with a network 5029. Example network adapters are communications channels, token ring, Ethernet or modems. Alternatively, the system 5021 may communicate using a wireless interface, such as a CDPD (cellular digital packet data) card. The system 5021 may be associated with such other computers in a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or the system 5021 can be a client in a client/server arrangement with another computer, etc. All of these configurations, as well as the appropriate communications hardware and software, are known in the art.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data processing network 5040 in which the present invention may be practiced. The data processing network 5040 may include a plurality of individual networks, such as a wireless network and a wired network, each of which may include a plurality of individual workstations 5041, 5042, 5043, 5044. Additionally, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, one or more LANs may be included, where a LAN may comprise a plurality of intelligent workstations coupled to a host processor.

Still referring to FIG. 7, the networks may also include mainframe computers or servers, such as a gateway computer (client server 5046) or application server (remote server 5048 which may access a data repository and may also be accessed directly from a workstation 5045). A gateway computer 5046 serves as a point of entry into each individual network. A gateway is needed when connecting one networking protocol to another. The gateway 5046 may be preferably coupled to another network (the Internet 5047 for example) by means of a communications link. The gateway 5046 may also be directly coupled to one or more workstations 5041, 5042, 5043, 5044 using a communications link. The gateway computer may be implemented utilizing an IBM eServer™ System z® server available from International Business Machines Corporation.

Referring concurrently to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, software programming code which may embody the present invention may be accessed by the processor 5026 of the system 5020 from long-term storage media 5027, such as a CD-ROM drive or hard drive. The software programming code may be embodied on any of a variety of known media for use with a data processing system, such as a diskette, hard drive, or CD-ROM. The code may be distributed on such media, or may be distributed to users 5050, 5051 from the memory or storage of one computer system over a network to other computer systems for use by users of such other systems.

Alternatively, the programming code may be embodied in the memory 5025, and accessed by the processor 5026 using the processor bus. Such programming code includes an operating system which controls the function and interaction of the various computer components and one or more application programs 5032. Program code is normally paged from storage media 5027 to high-speed memory 5025 where it is available for processing by the processor 5026. The techniques and methods for embodying software programming code in memory, on physical media, and/or distributing software code via networks are well known and will not be further discussed herein. Program code, when created and stored on a tangible medium (including but not limited to electronic memory modules (RAM), flash memory, Compact Discs (CDs), DVDs, Magnetic Tape and the like is often referred to as a “computer program product”. The computer program product medium is typically readable by a processing circuit preferably in a computer system for execution by the processing circuit.

The cache that is most readily available to the processor (normally faster and smaller than other caches of the processor) is the lowest (L1 or level one) cache and main store (main memory) is the highest level cache (L3 if there are 3 levels). The lowest level cache is often divided into an instruction cache (I-Cache) holding machine instructions to be executed and a data cache (D-Cache) holding data operands.

Referring to FIG. 8, an exemplary processor embodiment is depicted for processor 5026. Typically one or more levels of cache 5053 are employed to buffer memory blocks in order to improve processor performance. The cache 5053 is a high speed buffer holding cache lines of memory data that are likely to be used. Typical cache lines are 64, 128 or 256 bytes of memory data. Separate caches are often employed for caching instructions than for caching data. Cache coherence (synchronization of copies of lines in memory and the caches) is often provided by various “snoop” algorithms well known in the art. Main memory storage 5025 of a processor system is often referred to as a cache. In a processor system having 4 levels of cache 5053, main storage 5025 is sometimes referred to as the level 5 (L5) cache since it is typically faster and only holds a portion of the non-volatile storage (DASD, tape etc) that is available to a computer system. Main storage 5025 “caches” pages of data paged in and out of the main storage 5025 by the operating system.

A program counter (instruction counter) 5061 keeps track of the address of the current instruction to be executed. A program counter in a z/Architecture® processor is 64 bits and can be truncated to 31 or 24 bits to support prior addressing limits. A program counter is typically embodied in a PSW (program status word) of a computer such that it persists during context switching. Thus, a program in progress, having a program counter value, may be interrupted by, for example, the operating system (context switch from the program environment to the operating system environment). The PSW of the program maintains the program counter value while the program is not active, and the program counter (in the PSW) of the operating system is used while the operating system is executing. Typically, the program counter is incremented by an amount equal to the number of bytes of the current instruction. RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) instructions are typically fixed length while CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) instructions are typically variable length. Instructions of the IBM z/Architecture® are CISC instructions having a length of 2, 4 or 6 bytes. The Program counter 5061 is modified by either a context switch operation or a branch taken operation of a branch instruction for example. In a context switch operation, the current program counter value is saved in the program status word along with other state information about the program being executed (such as condition codes), and a new program counter value is loaded pointing to an instruction of a new program module to be executed. A branch taken operation is performed in order to permit the program to make decisions or loop within the program by loading the result of the branch instruction into the program counter 5061.

Typically an instruction fetch unit 5055 is employed to fetch instructions on behalf of the processor 5026. The fetch unit either fetches “next sequential instructions”, target instructions of branch taken instructions, or first instructions of a program following a context switch. Modern Instruction fetch units often employ prefetch techniques to speculatively prefetch instructions based on the likelihood that the prefetched instructions might be used. For example, a fetch unit may fetch 16 bytes of instruction that includes the next sequential instruction and additional bytes of further sequential instructions.

The fetched instructions are then executed by the processor 5026. In an embodiment, the fetched instruction(s) are passed to a dispatch unit 5056 of the fetch unit. The dispatch unit decodes the instruction(s) and forwards information about the decoded instruction(s) to appropriate units 5057, 5058, 5060. An execution unit 5057 will typically receive information about decoded arithmetic instructions from the instruction fetch unit 5055 and will perform arithmetic operations on operands according to the opcode of the instruction. Operands are provided to the execution unit 5057 preferably either from memory 5025, architected registers 5059 or from an immediate field of the instruction being executed. Results of the execution, when stored, are stored either in memory 5025, registers 5059 or in other machine hardware (such as control registers, PSW registers and the like).

A processor 5026 typically has one or more units 5057, 5058, 5060 for executing the function of the instruction. Referring to FIG. 9A, an execution unit 5057 may communicate with architected general registers 5059, a decode/dispatch unit 5056, a load store unit 5060, and other 5065 processor units by way of interfacing logic 5071. An execution unit 5057 may employ several register circuits 5067, 5068, 5069 to hold information that the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) 5066 will operate on. The ALU performs arithmetic operations such as add, subtract, multiply and divide as well as logical function such as and, or and exclusive-or (XOR), rotate and shift. Preferably the ALU supports specialized operations that are design dependent. Other circuits may provide other architected facilities 5072 including condition codes and recovery support logic for example. Typically the result of an ALU operation is held in an output register circuit 5070 which can forward the result to a variety of other processing functions. There are many arrangements of processor units, the present description is only intended to provide a representative understanding of one embodiment.

An ADD instruction for example would be executed in an execution unit 5057 having arithmetic and logical functionality while a floating point instruction for example would be executed in a floating point execution having specialized floating point capability. Preferably, an execution unit operates on operands identified by an instruction by performing an opcode defined function on the operands. For example, an ADD instruction may be executed by an execution unit 5057 on operands found in two registers 5059 identified by register fields of the instruction.

The execution unit 5057 performs the arithmetic addition on two operands and stores the result in a third operand where the third operand may be a third register or one of the two source registers. The execution unit preferably utilizes an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) 5066 that is capable of performing a variety of logical functions such as Shift, Rotate, And, Or and XOR as well as a variety of algebraic functions including any of add, subtract, multiply, divide. Some ALUs 5066 are designed for scalar operations and some for floating point. Data may be Big Endian (where the least significant byte is at the highest byte address) or Little Endian (where the least significant byte is at the lowest byte address) depending on architecture. The IBM z/Architecture® is Big Endian. Signed fields may be sign and magnitude, 1's complement or 2's complement depending on architecture. A 2's complement number is advantageous in that the ALU does not need to design a subtract capability since either a negative value or a positive value in 2's complement requires only an addition within the ALU. Numbers are commonly described in shorthand, where a 12 bit field defines an address of a 4,096 byte block and is commonly described as a 4 Kbyte (Kilo-byte) block, for example.

Referring to FIG. 9B, branch instruction information for executing a branch instruction is typically sent to a branch unit 5058 which often employs a branch prediction algorithm such as a branch history table 5082 to predict the outcome of the branch before other conditional operations are complete. The target of the current branch instruction will be fetched and speculatively executed before the conditional operations are complete. When the conditional operations are completed the speculatively executed branch instructions are either completed or discarded based on the conditions of the conditional operation and the speculated outcome. A typical branch instruction may test condition codes and branch to a target address if the condition codes meet the branch requirement of the branch instruction, a target address may be calculated based on several numbers including ones found in register fields or an immediate field of the instruction for example. The branch unit 5058 may employ an ALU 5074 having a plurality of input register circuits 5075, 5076, 5077 and an output register circuit 5080. The branch unit 5058 may communicate with general registers 5059, decode dispatch unit 5056 or other circuits 5073, for example.

The execution of a group of instructions can be interrupted for a variety of reasons including a context switch initiated by an operating system, a program exception or error causing a context switch, an I/O interruption signal causing a context switch or multi-threading activity of a plurality of programs (in a multi-threaded environment), for example. Preferably a context switch action saves state information about a currently executing program and then loads state information about another program being invoked. State information may be saved in hardware registers or in memory for example. State information preferably comprises a program counter value pointing to a next instruction to be executed, condition codes, memory translation information and architected register content. A context switch activity can be exercised by hardware circuits, application programs, operating system programs or firmware code (microcode, pico-code or licensed internal code (LIC)) alone or in combination.

A processor accesses operands according to instruction defined methods. The instruction may provide an immediate operand using the value of a portion of the instruction, may provide one or more register fields explicitly pointing to either general purpose registers or special purpose registers (floating point registers for example). The instruction may utilize implied registers identified by an opcode field as operands. The instruction may utilize memory locations for operands. A memory location of an operand may be provided by a register, an immediate field, or a combination of registers and immediate field as exemplified by the z/Architecture® long displacement facility wherein the instruction defines a base register, an index register and an immediate field (displacement field) that are added together to provide the address of the operand in memory for example. Location herein typically implies a location in main memory (main storage) unless otherwise indicated.

Referring to FIG. 9C, a processor accesses storage using a load/store unit 5060. The load/store unit 5060 may perform a load operation by obtaining the address of the target operand in memory 5053 and loading the operand in a register 5059 or another memory 5053 location, or may perform a store operation by obtaining the address of the target operand in memory 5053 and storing data obtained from a register 5059 or another memory 5053 location in the target operand location in memory 5053. The load/store unit 5060 may be speculative and may access memory in a sequence that is out-of-order relative to instruction sequence, however the load/store unit 5060 is to maintain the appearance to programs that instructions were executed in order. A load/store unit 5060 may communicate with general registers 5059, decode/dispatch unit 5056, cache/memory interface 5053 or other elements 5083 and comprises various register circuits, ALUs 5085 and control logic 5090 to calculate storage addresses and to provide pipeline sequencing to keep operations in-order. Some operations may be out of order but the load/store unit provides functionality to make the out of order operations to appear to the program as having been performed in order, as is well known in the art.

Preferably addresses that an application program “sees” are often referred to as virtual addresses. Virtual addresses are sometimes referred to as “logical addresses” and “effective addresses”. These virtual addresses are virtual in that they are redirected to physical memory location by one of a variety of dynamic address translation (DAT) technologies including, but not limited to, simply prefixing a virtual address with an offset value, translating the virtual address via one or more translation tables, the translation tables preferably comprising at least a segment table and a page table alone or in combination, preferably, the segment table having an entry pointing to the page table. In the z/Architecture®, a hierarchy of translation is provided including a region first table, a region second table, a region third table, a segment table and an optional page table. The performance of the address translation is often improved by utilizing a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) which comprises entries mapping a virtual address to an associated physical memory location. The entries are created when the DAT translates a virtual address using the translation tables. Subsequent use of the virtual address can then utilize the entry of the fast TLB rather than the slow sequential translation table accesses. TLB content may be managed by a variety of replacement algorithms including LRU (Least Recently used).

In the case where the processor is a processor of a multi-processor system, each processor has responsibility to keep shared resources, such as I/O, caches, TLBs and memory, interlocked for coherency. Typically, “snoop” technologies will be utilized in maintaining cache coherency. In a snoop environment, each cache line may be marked as being in any one of a shared state, an exclusive state, a changed state, an invalid state and the like in order to facilitate sharing.

I/O units 5054 (FIG. 8) provide the processor with means for attaching to peripheral devices including tape, disc, printers, displays, and networks for example. I/O units are often presented to the computer program by software drivers. In mainframes, such as the System z® from IBM®, channel adapters and open system adapters are I/O units of the mainframe that provide the communications between the operating system and peripheral devices.

Further, other types of computing environments can benefit from one or more aspects of the present invention. As an example, an environment may include an emulator (e.g., software or other emulation mechanisms), in which a particular architecture (including, for instance, instruction execution, architected functions, such as address translation, and architected registers) or a subset thereof is emulated (e.g., on a native computer system having a processor and memory). In such an environment, one or more emulation functions of the emulator can implement one or more aspects of the present invention, even though a computer executing the emulator may have a different architecture than the capabilities being emulated. As one example, in emulation mode, the specific instruction or operation being emulated is decoded, and an appropriate emulation function is built to implement the individual instruction or operation.

In an emulation environment, a host computer includes, for instance, a memory to store instructions and data; an instruction fetch unit to fetch instructions from memory and to optionally, provide local buffering for the fetched instruction; an instruction decode unit to receive the fetched instructions and to determine the type of instructions that have been fetched; and an instruction execution unit to execute the instructions. Execution may include loading data into a register from memory; storing data back to memory from a register; or performing some type of arithmetic or logical operation, as determined by the decode unit. In one example, each unit is implemented in software. For instance, the operations being performed by the units are implemented as one or more subroutines within emulator software.

More particularly, in a mainframe, architected machine instructions are used by programmers, usually today “C” programmers, often by way of a compiler application. These instructions stored in the storage medium may be executed natively in a z/Architecture® IBM® Server, or alternatively in machines executing other architectures. They can be emulated in the existing and in future IBM® mainframe servers and on other machines of IBM® (e.g., Power Systems servers and System X® Servers). They can be executed in machines running Linux on a wide variety of machines using hardware manufactured by IBM®, Intel®, AMD™, and others. Besides execution on that hardware under a z/Architecture®, Linux can be used as well as machines which use emulation by Hercules, UMX, or FSI (Fundamental Software, Inc), where generally execution is in an emulation mode. In emulation mode, emulation software is executed by a native processor to emulate the architecture of an emulated processor.

The native processor typically executes emulation software comprising either firmware or a native operating system to perform emulation of the emulated processor. The emulation software is responsible for fetching and executing instructions of the emulated processor architecture. The emulation software maintains an emulated program counter to keep track of instruction boundaries. The emulation software may fetch one or more emulated machine instructions at a time and convert the one or more emulated machine instructions to a corresponding group of native machine instructions for execution by the native processor. These converted instructions may be cached such that a faster conversion can be accomplished. Notwithstanding, the emulation software is to maintain the architecture rules of the emulated processor architecture so as to assure operating systems and applications written for the emulated processor operate correctly. Furthermore, the emulation software is to provide resources identified by the emulated processor architecture including, but not limited to, control registers, general purpose registers, floating point registers, dynamic address translation function including segment tables and page tables for example, interrupt mechanisms, context switch mechanisms, Time of Day (TOD) clocks and architected interfaces to I/O subsystems such that an operating system or an application program designed to run on the emulated processor, can be run on the native processor having the emulation software.

A specific instruction being emulated is decoded, and a subroutine is called to perform the function of the individual instruction. An emulation software function emulating a function of an emulated processor is implemented, for example, in a “C” subroutine or driver, or some other method of providing a driver for the specific hardware as will be within the skill of those in the art after understanding the description of the preferred embodiment. Various software and hardware emulation patents including, but not limited to U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,013, entitled “Multiprocessor for Hardware Emulation”, by Beausoleil et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,261, entitled “Preprocessing of Stored Target Routines for Emulating Incompatible Instructions on a Target Processor”, by Scalzi et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,873, entitled “Decoding Guest Instruction to Directly Access Emulation Routines that Emulate the Guest Instructions”, by Davidian et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,255, entitled “Symmetrical Multiprocessing Bus and Chipset Used for Coprocessor Support Allowing Non-Native Code to Run in a System”, by Gorishek et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,582, entitled “Dynamic Optimizing Object Code Translator for Architecture Emulation and Dynamic Optimizing Object Code Translation Method”, by Lethin et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,825, entitled “Method for Emulating Guest Instructions on a Host Computer Through Dynamic Recompilation of Host Instructions”, by Eric Traut, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety; and many others, illustrate a variety of known ways to achieve emulation of an instruction format architected for a different machine for a target machine available to those skilled in the art.

In FIG. 10, an example of an emulated host computer system 5092 is provided that emulates a host computer system 5000′ of a host architecture. In the emulated host computer system 5092, the host processor (CPU) 5091 is an emulated host processor (or virtual host processor) and comprises an emulation processor 5093 having a different native instruction set architecture than that of the processor 5091 of the host computer 5000′. The emulated host computer system 5092 has memory 5094 accessible to the emulation processor 5093. In the example embodiment, the memory 5094 is partitioned into a host computer memory 5096 portion and an emulation routines 5097 portion. The host computer memory 5096 is available to programs of the emulated host computer 5092 according to host computer architecture. The emulation processor 5093 executes native instructions of an architected instruction set of an architecture other than that of the emulated processor 5091, the native instructions obtained from emulation routines memory 5097, and may access a host instruction for execution from a program in host computer memory 5096 by employing one or more instruction(s) obtained in a sequence & access/decode routine which may decode the host instruction(s) accessed to determine a native instruction execution routine for emulating the function of the host instruction accessed. Other facilities that are defined for the host computer system 5000′ architecture may be emulated by architected facilities routines, including such facilities as general purpose registers, control registers, dynamic address translation and I/O subsystem support and processor cache, for example. The emulation routines may also take advantage of functions available in the emulation processor 5093 (such as general registers and dynamic translation of virtual addresses) to improve performance of the emulation routines. Special hardware and off-load engines may also be provided to assist the processor 5093 in emulating the function of the host computer 5000′.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising”, when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below, if any, are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiment with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. 

1. A computer program product for facilitating communication of actions to be taken, said computer program product comprising: a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: responsive to executing a Service Call Logical Processor (SCLP) instruction specifying a control block, the control block comprising an event type, a function handle of an adapter, an adapter type and an action qualifier, performing an action based on the action qualifier, the action comprising one of resetting the adapter or requesting a repair action; responsive to completing the SCLP, notifying an operating system; and responsive to executing a Store Event Information command issued by the operating system responsive to notification, obtaining information regarding the action.
 2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information comprises an event code indicating an event associated with the action that was performed for the adapter.
 3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the event comprises one of: the adapter identified by the function handle has moved to a configured state, the adapter has moved from a reserved state to a standby state, a deconfigure of the adapter, the adapter has moved from the configured state to a standby or reserved state, an amount of storage has changed, and one or more adapters that are unidentified may be in a standby state.
 4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operating system is executing in a logical partition of the logically partitioned processing unit, and the adapter is logically owned by the logical partition.
 5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the SCLP is issued by the operating system to request the action, the requesting by the operating system being independent of the type of adapter and the type of operating system.
 6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the performing comprises performing the action consistently each time the action is performed for the event type.
 7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises requesting by the firmware, responsive to receiving the control block, creation of an entry in a system log, the entry to include information from the control block.
 8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the requesting of creation of the entry comprises sending a request to a service processor to create the entry, and wherein the method further comprises: analyzing, by the service processor, a service reference code provided in the request; and initiating, by the service processor, a servicing repair action based on the service reference code.
 9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein associated with the action is an action qualifier, and wherein the service reference code is unique for an adapter type and action qualifier combination.
 10. A computer program product for facilitating communication of events, said computer program product comprising: a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: responsive to an event that has occurred relating to an adapter, notifying an operating system; and responsive to executing a Store Event Information command issued by the operating system responsive to notification, obtaining information associated with the event, said information comprising a function handle identifying the adapter and an event code providing state regarding the adapter.
 11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the event comprises one of: the adapter identified by the function handle has moved to a configured state, the adapter has moved from a reserved state to a standby state, a deconfigure of the adapter, the adapter has moved from the configured state to a standby or reserved state, an amount of storage has changed, and one or more adapters that are unidentified may be in a standby state.
 12. A computer system for facilitating communication of actions to be taken, said computer system comprising: a memory; and a processing unit in communication with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising: responsive to executing a Service Call Logical Processor (SCLP) instruction specifying a control block, the control block comprising an event type, a function handle of an adapter, an adapter type and an action qualifier, performing an action based on the action qualifier, the action comprising one of resetting the adapter or requesting a repair action; responsive to completing the SCLP, notifying an operating system; and responsive to executing a Store Event Information command issued by the operating system responsive to notification, obtaining information regarding the action.
 13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the information comprises an event code indicating an event associated with the action that was performed for the adapter.
 14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the event comprises one of the adapter identified by the function handle has moved to a configured state, the adapter has moved from a reserved state to a standby state, a deconfigure of the adapter, the adapter has moved from the configured state to a standby or reserved state, an amount of storage has changed, and one or more adapters that are unidentified may be in a standby state.
 15. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operating system is executing in a logical partition of the logically partitioned processing unit, and the adapter is logically owned by the logical partition.
 16. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the SCLP is issued by the operating system to request the action, the requesting by the operating system being independent of the type of adapter and the type of operating system.
 17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the performing comprises performing the action, wherein the performing comprises performing the action consistently each time the action is performed for the event type.
 18. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises requesting by the firmware, responsive to receiving the control block, creation of an entry in a system log, the entry to include information from the control block.
 19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the requesting of creation of the entry comprises sending a request to a service processor to create the entry, and wherein the method further comprises: analyzing, by the service processor, a service reference code provided in the request; and initiating, by the service processor, a repair action based on the service reference code.
 20. A method of facilitating communication of actions to be taken, said method comprising: responsive to executing, by a processor, a Service Call Logical Processor (SCLP) instruction specifying a control block, the control block comprising an event type, a function handle of an adapter, an adapter type and an action qualifier, performing an action based on the action qualifier, the action comprising one of resetting the adapter or requesting a repair action; responsive to completing the SCLP, notifying an operating system; and responsive to executing a Store Event Information command issued by the operating system responsive to notification, obtaining information regarding the action.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the information comprises an event code indicating an event associated with the action that was performed for the adapter.
 22. The method of claim 20, further comprising requesting by the firmware, responsive to receiving the control block, creation of an entry in a system log, the entry to include information from the control block. 